Pages

Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Welcome, welcome to my stop on the blog tour for BLOOD ROAD (Blood Oath #1) by Amanda McCrina. Be sure to read through the whole post... there's a nice little giveaway towards the end

*wink*

Title: BLOOD ROAD (Blood Oath #1)

Author: Amanda McCrina

Publisher: Month9Books

Release Date: April 25, 2017

Description from Goodreads: Nineteen-year-old Torien Risto has seen
dissidents dealt with before. He knows the young local girl who just knifed him
will hang for assaulting an Imperial officer, unless he can stop it.

Someone inside the provincial government
is kidnapping Imperial citizens and selling them across the desert to the salt
mines, silencing anyone who tries to intervene. The girl’s brother is one of
those who has been taken. Rejected by the corrupt courts, she’s waging a
personal war against the Empire.

Determined to save her life, Torien sets
out in search of answers on the Salt Road, the ancient trade route running deep
into the heart of a desert—territory claimed by the hostile Mayaso tribe.

Now, Torien is no longer sure where his
own loyalty lies, or how far he will go to break the cycle of tyranny,
political bullying, and social injustice in an empire that seals its borders in
blood.

About the Author

Amanda McCrina has studied in Italy,
taught English in Japan, and currently tutors Latin in Atlanta, Georgia. She
received her BA in History from the University of West Georgia, and is now
pursuing her MA. She writes stories that incorporate her love of history, languages,
and world travel. She drinks far too much coffee and dreams of one day having a
winning fantasy-hockey season.

A cavalry
troop was just coming in to the stable yard from the Road. It was an irregular
troop, not a standard column—scouts, judging by their light harness. Torien
stood and watched with Alluin while they dismounted. He had supposed them to be
local auxiliaries, as scouts typically were, but when the dust had settled he
picked out Vareno faces among them, and one face that might have been Cesino,
though he could not tell for sure. One man’s eyes fell briefly on Torien’s,
across the yard. His gaze was hollow. In his dirt-streaked face, Torien
recognized the same look of resignation as had been in the woman’s face that
night in the shanty in Modigne. The scout turned his head away without
saluting.

When they
rejoined Tarrega in the street, Torien said, “Auxiliaries?”

Tarrega
said, “Signi.”

Torien’s
steps slowed. He looked back over his shoulder to the stable yard.

Tarrega
said, “You’ve never seen signi
before?” As an afterthought, he added, “Sir?”

“They don’t
post signi to Vione.”

“But to
Cesin?”

Perhaps to
the Outland, to the furthest reaches of the mountains where the rebellious
Brycigi still thrashed against the Imperial yoke; Torien did not know. “Is the
Road so dangerous, then—that you use signi
as scouts?”

Unexpectedly,
Tarrega flashed a cool knife-blade smile. His teeth were very white. “The
Mayasi,” he said, “make it their peculiar habit to leave their prisoners
stripped and staked out in the sand and dead of thirst or sun sickness or
jackals, whichever comes first. Or they hold them alive, for interrogation, and
from what I’ve seen of the few poor souls we’ve recovered—better to die in the
sand. So the signi are useful twice
over.”

Torien
looked at him. “They aren’t citizens,” Tarrega said. “It doesn’t matter how
they die. And they don’t know anything to give up under torture.”